There are few things that so touch us with instinctive revulsion as a breach of decorum.

Abstention from labor is the conventional evidence of wealth and is therefore the conventional mark of social standing.

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.

Loud dress becomes offensive to people of taste, as evincing an undue desire to reach and impress the untrained sensibilities of the vulgar.

With the exception of the instinct of self-preservation, the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper.

All business sagacity reduces itself in the last analysis to judicious use of sabotage.

Instead of investing in the goods as they pass between producer and consumer, as the merchant does, the businessman now invests in the processes of industry.